As the graphic solution industry is getting digital, it needs its operators to be more evolved to handle the complexities that has eventually crept in their job with the advancement in technology.
Continuing advances in technology and ongoing pressure on productivity are building the demand for creative and innovation skills with which workforces can be able to use big data, engage with complex systems and focus on customers. With these skills, Indian Signage industry can better respond to the challenges of operating in a marketplace that is actually turning global.
As technologies continue to evolve, converge or relocate, and as new job roles emerge and others become obsolete, developing economies like ours are looking to detect the onset of economic and industry trends. To find out what is going on in the Indian Signage industry, Sign & POP World tried meeting and conversing with the industry stakeholders that if the industry is ready to take on the challenges on the skill needs of the workforces to sustain the future competencies. Before going in any further detail, let’s take a look what are all those skills and responsibilities needed in producing large format graphics, digital wall murals, architectural signage, hoardings, OOH, interior branding of corporate environments, to roll-outs of retail chain promotions and displays.
Operators’ Responsibilities
First of all, Operators’ understanding about production methods is a must to be successful in this position that includes handling of equipment for sign production (printers/cutters/mounting machines), make sure that media and ink meet the required specs, and make adjustment to the margins and the flow of ink to the inking rollers as needed.
Operators operating high-speed digital printing machines are always on the lookout for potential problems, quickly rectifying any issues in an attempt to prevent costly losses of the media and ink. During the operation, operators periodically check media to look for printing imperfections, though a lot of quality analysis is now performed by computers.
Inclusive of Maintenance
In majority of the printing facilities, the machine operators also are responsible for preventive maintenance. Therefore, operators must also possess mechanical skills since part of their responsibility includes repair and adjusting machines. Operators must lubricate and clean the print heads and perform any minor repairs if so needed.
Skill Development is Owners’ Pride
Training is fundamentally important not only for the operators but owners. Any training is directly linked to the productivity improvements and subsequently measured to ensure that the benefits have been delivered. In order to deliver real business benefits and productivity improvements, a mix of business change and training is needed. The supplier/manufacturer of machines must come forward, provide all the training, or train PSP’s staff to extend the training further. The key aspect is that it must be built into the project plan, so that the ownership can be defined to take the responsibility, and commit to driving through the potential changes in the skills required to run these high-tech machines. The need is to develop a business case for the training and monitor benefits delivery, rather than treating the operators’ skills as a standalone issue.
The Current State
The majority of printing facilities already has installed computerised printing machines which use complex controls allowing jobs to be set up more rapidly. Accordingly, with the advancements in technology, the role or responsibilities of operators’ gets changed or rather upgraded with a knick of technical knowhow.
For the advanced high-tech machines, the operators use computers to carry out most of the duties electronically. Operators can track the progress and status of the printing process using a monitor which also facilitates adjustments to be made electronically. Basing all this and the like, no wonder, all the stakeholders agree that operators are the key to the success to digital printing businesses for any revolution that is expected to come in near future.
According to Puneet Chadha, Director Market Development, Graphic Solutions Business – HP, Asia Pacific & Japan, operators are the main interface to digital print production. Their knowledge and expertise are critically important to the performance, utilisation and return on investment of the digital print production infrastructure. “From managing workloads, optimising media usage, to delivering on unique high-value applications (e.g. variable data and personalised campaigns), operators are a key factor for success and are the ones who make sure that print service providers can deliver on their promises – all while adapting to short turnaround times and high quality demands,” he said.
Echoed Rajat Mitra, Director, Caldron Graphics, who opines that digital printing machine operators are responsible for maintaining, applying settings to and loading materials and ripped files onto the printers. “In the process for a given job, operators first make arrangement of necessary materials out of the stockroom, check that the material is without blemish and load the material onto the printer to which the job is assigned. They must also open the file on the printer computer and check for mistakes or issues that were missed by digital, and then setup the file for printing and print the job. In the end, they must check that the print was all perfect as asked and move it in SeaShell from the printer to the next step of the job process,” elaborated Mitra.
The digital transition is everywhere; the graphic solutions industry is no different. Keeping in view the development taking place, operators’ skills are a must to be enhanced enabling them to cope up with the complexities that the high-tech products are coming up with. Since, machine operators are the backbone for a graphic solution company, their skill development becomes vital for the employer to remain competitive. Unless the operators are made eligible enough to understand the instructions, especially the technical ones, the operational training may not be fruitful to an extent, expected.
Training or skilling is an ongoing process to cope up with the pace of development and to be in the run for businesses. “Old saying ‘Jiska Kaam Ussi Ko Saaje’ (The work suits in the hands of the one skilled to do it.),” shared Mohan KT of UV Printers while insisting that for printing industry, machine operator is a person of vital importance to an extent that he can make or destroy a well-known product/brand image or even drown the company reputation just in a matter of second. “You can’t handover Ferrari to a City Taxi Driver,” he quipped.
It is, therefore, imperative to state that operators are the link between the present and the future for any printing businesses irrespective of the brand’s recognition in the market. “The role of operators at the PSP is highly important in getting a quality print from the machine. It is the operator who understands the colours, the process, the media and the output that is desired from the customer,” opined Rajat Jaitley, Marketing Manager, Apsom Infotex Ltd. is responsible solely for marketing Roland DG in India.
Smarth Bansal, Business Development Manager of Colorjet India, opines differently, when he mentioned that the operators are the ones bring fame followed by enhanced businesses in time to come or a total shock for that particular unit. “Operator is the key person to bring out the best output of the job at hand and the machine available to him. The main reason for a PSP to bag new contracts is the professionalism of their operators,” he asserted insisting that an operator should have an open mind and knowledge of how to achieve the desired print quality.
The sentiments were very much similar from Atul C. Gandhi, Director, Macart Equipment Pvt Ltd., who opines that digital printing equipment manufacturers should take the call seriously. “Operators play a vital role in adding credibility to the digital printing industry, and to get the best performance from the equipment, operators’ role is essentially big and important,” he shared adding that the responsibility of operators’ training lies with the equipment manufacturers. “Digital printing equipment manufacturers should have proper training sessions for operators. Further, as most printing colleges don’t have digital printing equipment, getting trained operator for this segment is actually difficult.”
The Dearth of Skill
The operators are responsible for performing different tasks in the process of print production. They spend most of their time operating and maintaining these machines. Almost all the stakeholders agree that operators use their creative and practical skills to create a range of products depending upon the requirement right from labels to signage and then to hoardings using varied machines with specific functions.
“Skilled and professional operators can turn around a digital print business, but may be hard to find or too expensive to keep. Understanding this challenge, mainly for the volume Latex market segment, we at HP developed our HP Latex printers to deliver ease-of-use together with high quality, all achievable with varied operator skills,” informed Chadha who believes that the industry is passing through a phase where technology drives the market with ease of use and productivity. “This turns operating a digital printer from a skill or expertise into a commodity. We also expect that as IT, electronics and colour management become more common, the average skillset will grow even further, allowing for greater output in quality, consistency and overall performance,” he highlighted.
“Printing industry requires a lot of expertise in the personnel employed for the working, functioning, running and maintenance of the machines. The operator learns the things gradually over 2-3 years of hands-on-experience before he is considered expert or pro. Major task remains with the existing skilled people to train the newcomers and add to the shortfall in the taskforce,” explained Gandhi indicating that the dearth of skilled workers remainsas one of the major concerns here in India. Elucidating further, he added that basic skills on software like photoshop & corel draw are a must in the printing industry, especially for large format printers’ operator or service engineer. “Besides, knowledge on colour management is also important to get the best performance from these printers,” mentioned Gandhi.
However, this is nothing specific to the digital printing industry as Jaitly pointed out while speaking on the issue. “The situation is same in every industry. Quality people are very limited and not easily available. The major reason behind the same is that India as a market is not a quality conscious market. Therefore, everyone can survive in this market in various industries. In our industry, we have loads of normal operators available but there scarcity of quality operators,” he opined.
Mohan didn’t give his consent to the fact that India is facing the dearth in the quality workmanship, but for him, the needed urge is missing. “I don’t agree with the perception that operational capability required to run a digital printing machine is somehow unique than what they are already engaged in, for years. Digital printing industry is not a rocket science. It all depends on the person’s (operator’s) grasping capability & company (the machine manufacturer/supplier)’s knowledge transfer ability,” he shared.
According to Mohan, unfortunately, the billion $ signage industry still works like an unorganised sector. “Professionalism is missing at all front including indigenous manufacturer/importer, sales & service provider, fabricator/convertor, event organiser/publisher,” he said adding that these are all bottlenecks for operators’ skill improvement. “This needs to be taken up at MSME-government level there should be curriculum at ITI, regional engineering college level with cluster/machine room (all sort of) so that not only operation but maintenance training can also be imparted by the industry professionals,” he suggested.
Following same line of thought, Bansal too showed his disagreement to the given aspect. “Today, the scenario has changed and now skilled manpower especially in digital printing industry can be spotted easily. Operators have gained wide experience in digital domain. Since, the industry is growing with double digit growth rate, this issue will be addressed more efficiently in time to come,” he saidsuggesting that an operator should have an open mind to adjust with the clients’ expectations and the changing fashion trends as well. “Operators should be open to use RIP software which are available for different types of machines and printing. Besides, theymust have a knick on the knowledge about the media to be used on particular machine for that particular design.”
Upgrading Skills
There’s no denial of the fact that advancements in technology have greatly changed the skills a printing machine operator must possess. Modern equipment makes it necessary that the operators of contemporary high-tech machines are skilled in the basic computer functions. At times experienced workers might have to receive additional training to enhance and update their skill set according to the advancements that are brought in to the machine time and again. For instance, firms that shift from sheet-fed offset presses to digital presses must train the entire crew again since the skills required to operate the two presses differ greatly.
Agrees Mitra, the industry has changed drastically over the past five or ten years, particularly since the rise of computerised technology. “Computers now ensure that the printed products are of high quality but even then operators are instrumental in the process. Operators need to be knowledgeable about different kinds of media as well as techniques which enable the printing process to be undertaken in the most accurate way possible. The operators are also made responsible for performing other tasks, including supervising print orders and looking after the particular needs of specific clients. And for all these to perform in a given manner, specific skills are required, with which we keep updating as and when required besides giving regular training on any updates in technology.”
Mitra highlights that noting the importance of operators in the digital printing industry setup; the operators’ training is a must for a continuous skill enhancement to remain competitive. “As a manufacturer/supplier, it’s our responsibility to train the operators on any new technology, we come up with. Also, we keep meeting PSPs in various cities on a regular basis where we call upon their operators, ask them for their queries and address each single issue willfully to make them feel satisfied. We do tell them that colour management is an important aspect of digital printing expertise and how it can be done using various software that are available for the purpose. These, apart, at our demo centre in Delhi; we keep addressing the issues of the operators. Besides, we do impart training through road-shows on regular basis,” he said indicating that there are limitations for small players when it comes to train the operators.
While others follow routine training programme, industry leaders set examples. Digital printing machine major, HP offers training courses for operators, focused on HP products at its Asia Pacific-Japan Learning Academy located in Singapore. “Besides, HP keeps introducing new technologies from time-to-time, focusing on bringing meaningful innovation to its customers and channel partners. Once a new technology is introduced, our focus is to make sure HP engineers, channel partners & their engineers and sales representatives are well-educated on the new technology and that they are able to convey the information to the production manager, printer/press owner and the operators the same time,” underscored Chadha divulging that HP entitles every customer to an onsite training of operators during the press installation, along with use of RIP Software technologies.
“Once an operator completes his or her HP Sign & Display Operator Training, we ensure that the person understands the significance of continuous learning. Additionally, by following pre-scheduled preventive maintenance routines and practices that maintain the printer/press at optimal operating condition, the operator’s knowledge is kept afresh and relevant,” he added sharing that for this purpose, HP runs preventive maintenance campaign across its existing customers installed base. “Under this campaign, we reward those achieving their targets and become the best performers within the Asia-Pacific and Japan region every quarter,” asserted Chadha.
Training is an ongoing process and is a must to keep the operators updated on any technique or technology. Soon, Apsom is planning to introduce Roland’s Operators Training Curriculum in India ensuring to impart necessary training to enhance the operators’ skills in a profound and systematic manner. “We, at Apsom Infotex, keep educating the operators across the nation through our Operator Training Program. We organise the training sessions in various cities and invite around 35–40 operators from various PSPs in a particular city and educate them on various parameters from maintaining the machine to delivering a quality print. On the other hand, Roland DG Academy, in its unique training program, offers workshops, courses, documentation and online help since long in the international markets. We plan to extend the same support in the Indian market as well from this year,” informed Jaitly.
According to Bansal, technology is something which is dynamic in nature and is constantly evolving. “So, at Colorjet, besides keeping ourselves abreast with the latest, we ensure that the same must be communicated and conveyed to the operators/owners right in time. We do this by way of holding local conferences and road shows,” he said sharing that Colorjet believes in providing adequate and sufficient training to the operator workforce so that their skills are timely updated and enhanced on regular basis.
“To enhance the skill of our operators, we provide training to printers’ overview. We let them know about printing technology, site requirements, machine operations, printers part locations commonly used, software installations, applications and its usage. This is then followed by maintenance and troubleshooting to enable them to take care of the problems if occur there during the operations,” said Bansal adding that Colorjet also emphasises training on colour matching and usage of different types of media to maximise the profits on the projects.
Changes and upgrades are constant in the inkjets industry when it comes to wide format printers. Wide formats are getting faster with more printing resolution every year. “To educate on the new technologies and advancements we give on-sight or in-house training to our channel partners, service engineers, and they in turn, train the customers’ operators. Most of them easily adapt to the changes and upgrade themselves,” stated Gandhi from Macart insisting on the importance of colour management. “We are conducting courses on colour management for all our customers and operators wherein we explain all the basic colour theory and give practical training in file preparation, colour management settings in Photoshop and Corel draw.”
Mohan from UV Printers always has his own, unique style of presenting things. “Invention is need of the hour. Technology nowadays is not restricted to any particular region/geography of the world, and India is very much part & parcel of any launch, worldwide. Only difference is, we need to balance demand & supply with justification as not merely pushing the technology/hardware where no sustaining mileage/ROI is possible, will do the job,” he shared adding that UV Printers, before the installation, ensures operators’ basic knowledge/skill about software (CDR, Photoshop, Pagemaker, CAD, etc.) past experiences as on which printer he/she has worked, and rest is mechanical ‘printer button operation’. “We don’t leave client premises till clients/operators confirm that they have taken out all the sample print on various substrate(s) so that and they can feel comfortable, acclimatize themselves with printer,” he asserted.
Advancements for printing machine operators are manifested with more responsibility as they begin to work on complicated printing machines. For instance, a machine operator of one-colour machine may advance to operating a four-colour machine by showing the required experience and ability. Some machine operators are promoted to supervisory positions and be in charge of the whole operation team. Those with the proper knowledge of prepress tasks can become prepress techs.
Conclusion
As printing has become increasingly digitised, some areas of the production process have become obsolete. The increasing use of computers is speeding up processes and reducing staff numbers. But for all this to get materialised, the industry must evolve to adapt to this transformed market, enhancing the skill not only for operating digital printing machine but also for handling router and laser on a regular basis is a must besides developing new business models to remain competitive on the global marketplace. For all this, operators/applicators are the key to lead the brand to specific goals set by the brands in meeting the needs of consumers. Therefore, the way forward for the industry is to keep the skill of its operators upgraded to remain consumer focused – this emphasis is a necessary shift in the industry’s outlook.
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The SKAP of Operators – Skill, Knowledge, Ability, Problem Solving Attributes
Skills are required to perform multiple, technical tasks with a potential need to upgrade skills in order to meet changing job conditions. Specific skill-based competencies required to satisfactorily perform the functions of the job include: operating equipment used in printing; knowledge of registration, web-to-print, and design skills.
Knowledge is required to perform basic mathematics; read and follow instructions; and understand complex, multi-step written and oral instructions. Specific knowledge-based competencies required to satisfactorily perform the functions of the job include: operation of the machine/equipment; and safety practices and procedures; extensive knowledge of operations regarding printing, graphics, and mailing.
Ability is required to schedule activities and/or meetings; collate data; and consider a number of factors when using equipment. Flexibility is required to work with others; work with data utilizing defined and similar processes; and operate equipment using a variety of standardised methods. Ability is also required to work with a wide diversity of individuals; work with a variety of data; and utilise a variety of job-related equipment.
Problem Solving, to some extent, may be required to identify issues and select action plans. Problem solving with data may require independent interpretation; and problem solving with equipment is moderate. Specific ability-based competencies required to satisfactorily perform the functions of the job include: working as part of a team; meeting deadlines and schedules; operate and perform, efficiently, etc.